5 Attributes that Make You An Easy Financial Target

Doctors are notoriously bad with money. Part of this has to do with the fact that the schools that prepare our future doctors are ill equipped to teach them about money. When I was a fourth year medical student, my school had a financial group called GL Advisors come and talk to us about money. Not only was their advice conflicted, but the lawyer who owned GL Advisors would later end up going to jail for fraud. Don’t believe me? Google it. We doctors have a giant target painted on our back.

Why are doctors so often the targets of financial debauchery?

Today’s post hopes to answer this question by pointing out five ways that doctors have a target painted on their back. Hopefully, through this discussion, you will be more aware of how and why people aim to steal a part of the pie that is rightly yours.

Target Number 1: High Income Earners

The most obvious reason that doctors have a target on our back is because we are high income earners. Even the lowest earning specialties in medicine earn more than $100,000 per year. The highest earning specialists earn north of $500,000.

With the median income in our country resting around $55-60,000, this places a target squarely on our back. For this reason, when the financial industry sees doctors, they see an opportunity to convince you to let go of a little bit of that money. You obviously don’t need all of that money.

Their goal quickly becomes to earn a piece of the pie that you worked so hard to obtain. Any work that they put in will likely be worth the effort given your income earning capacity.

Target Number 2: Low financial acumen

Becoming a board certified physician requires at the very least four years of undergraduate education, four years of medical school, and three years of residency training. For many, it involves much more. During this time, we work 60-100 hours per week learning our craft.

Who in this situation has time to learn about financial topics? Particularly given that our medical education system has failed to make this a priority despite being perfectly fine with allowing the government to hand us hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt.

Because of the limited time that is put towards personal finance topics, doctors often fall prey to the most common financial schemes. We purchase whole-life insurance, actively managed hedge funds, and individual securities pitched at us by financial advisors who have “special access” for high-income earners.

Target Number 3: We are Too Busy Doing Our Job

You know why a lot of doctors have a target painted on their back? Because we are too busy taking care of other people.

We are not very good at taking care of ourselves. This extends from wealth to health. Every month a large sum of money is placed into our accounts, just to see it vanish into the abyss of an inflated lifestyle and poor financial decisions.

Given that the system never taught us any better, our financial futures were left to chance that we might figure this stuff out on our own along the way. Unfortunately, we have neglected our financial situation.

For this reason, there are certain people who are more than happy to take advantage of this. “Hey doc, we both know that you are too busy to worry about this stuff. Just let me take care of everything so that you can do what you do best: taking care of patients.”

That all sounds well and good until twenty years later when you realize you’ve been taken to the wood shed and beaten, without realizing it.

Target Number 4: Personal Finance Is Too Complicated to DIY

This one is pretty simple given what has already been mentioned. We are busy. And we don’t know a lot about finances. So, it becomes very easy for others to convince us that it is all too complicated.

The truth is that it can be complicated, if we make it. But it certainly doesn’t have to be complicated. You can get to financial independence without knowing everything. You simply need to know enough.

Target Number 5: Overly Trusting

“Listen, you don’t need to learn about all of this stuff, doc. That’s why there are professionals. We can help set you up. We’ll take care of you. Just trust us.”

Call me a pessimist, but the specialty of anesthesiology exists because we “Trust, but verify” what others tell us. Many patients I take care of have benefited from me double checking what others tell me.

In the personal finance space, I was screwed over enough times to realize that many people did not have my best interests at heart.

That’s why I started this site. To teach medical students, residents, early career attendings, and other medical professionals about this stuff.

Take Home

The purpose of this post is to help doctors realize that they have a target painted on their back. People in the financial space do not always have your best interests at heart. It is your responsibility to “trust, but verify.”

In the end, it is also your responsibility to realize that this isn’t so complicated that you cannot do it yourself. There are plenty of people who are looking out for you and are willing to help.

Do you have examples of times when a target felt painted on your back? How did you realize it and fend off the attack? Leave a comment below.

11 thoughts on “5 Attributes that Make You An Easy Financial Target”

While I am not a physician I worked closely with physicians during my 28 years in healthcare. Every new academic year I would provide a short overview to new residents about the financial side of a physician practice. I would open up with a joke to not hire your spouse – it’s hard to fire them! On a serious note, residency programs do need to provide some basics on the finances involved with a physician career. I have seen to many examples of ugly financial situations. At least just a basic overview of setting up an office or being part of a partnership, reviewing key metrics to be aware of and a strong suggestion to get a good accountant/lawyer/business advisor.

I get that as doctors you have targets on your back. And I too, think everyone who’s so inclined should invest themselves.

However, for a variety of reasons, people don’t want to. The doc community has a very anti advisor mentality. And again, I get it. I’m a fiduciary advisor who came from the industry you hate. It’s valid and I’ve written about it recently on moneywithapurpose.com.

I’d like to see some balance in the writing from the doctor blogs. You exclude a group of people who will never do it themselves. What are they to do? How about helping them know how to find the right advisor? Tell them the difference between a broker and fiduciary. I saw one article you linked to that does so but references one firm. Teach docs what how to find one if that’s what they think they need.

If you’re interested, I have two recent articles that go into detail about how to find an advisor and ten questions to ask to know you’re getting the right one for you.

Not trying to promote my blog. Just looking for some balance.

And I appreciate that doctors have a blogging community. It’s really necessary. So please don’t get me wrong. In general, I’m a fan of what you all do.

I am very much for fee-only, flat hourly rate advisors who have experience with physicians. I’ll be looking for blog sponsors pretty soon and some of them will be receiving an email exactly for this reason. I can support what they do.

I’ll go check out your articles.

Maybe I’ll write a post for that exact target audience at some point – the ones who will never DIY – that said… Those people likely aren’t reading my site.

We absolutely have big targets painted on our back not only from the financial industry but everywhere else.

In my divorce opposing counsel went tooth and nail for everything b/c of the assumption I had deep pockets. I doubt she would have bothered if I was divorcing and a cashier at a local restaurant.

I’m sure when people come to my home to do estimates for work, I get charged an inflated price b/c of the “well he must be rich to live here” attitude, etc.

The no time excuse is easy to fall prey to but if you could save yourself 100s of thousands of dollars and shave years off working, is it not worth at most maybe 1-2 hrs a month to make sure your finances are in line? Maybe 1 finance book a year is all you need (or visit blogs 🙂 )

Xrayvsn, I think you are under selling the value of DIY investing. It’s not hundreds of thousands saved its millions.

Dinkytown has my favorite fees calculator.

Investing 50k a year for 30 years with 2%(easy to come by with an AUM fee and shitty mutual funds) in fees skims 1.8 million off your portfolio.

Not to mention loads, bad advice and under performing managed funds.

Reading a book or two and reading blogs like ours pays incredible returns! When I give finance talks to the residents I tell them that this information is worth millions and that usually gets their attention!